Forged in Fire: Damien vs Takeshi
Damein stared over the his surrounding a rather large clearing behind the guild hall it was surprising how he had never used this place for training. Right now he more importaunt stuff on his mind, after that horrendous first round match Damien was certain that this match would at least be enjoyable and wouldn't potentially leave him with a gaping wound in his shoulder. "Oh lord Takeshi please don't put a hole in me I'm still hella sore from last week! Damien said outload to the handsome dark haired man that stood some way in front of him. Damien had a glimspe into what Takeshi had in store for him from there last encounter. He had a sort of plan on how to beat him, but their last battle left Damien with a feeling of longing they had synced so well together he was genuinely interested about what this battle with bring them. "Let make this a good one mate!" Damien said to himself as he flexed his body readying it for the upcoming battle. "Don't worry mate, this won't be a hole-y battle like the last one." Takeshi said with a slight chuckle at his pun. His chest ached a bit from his wounds on their previous fight, having done a great deal of medical and ethernano work to help heal himself up in as best he could in the week long break. He adjusted the mechanical force output on his Exo-GS suit, something he had the liberty of replacing after the last match, as he knew he would rely on its enhancements for increasing his speed and power. "This will be a fun one I know it! 'Tis a shame though, since I think we did so well together last round...But none the less, we're sparring partners now, so don't think I'll be holding back!" Takeshi shouted as he stopped his foot done into the earth, bring up a series of five metallic plates that blocked Takeshi from view for a matter of seconds. Placing something on the back of each plate, he then reinforces the metallic plates with Iridosmium molecules to make the terrain-formed metal far more durable. The five foot tall metal sheets then begin to levitate and circle around Takeshi's form as he brings up his bionic arm. "Don't worry, we'll start it off simple. I know it may seem shocking, but I want to make sure you're hydrated before we begin." Takeshi laughs out between the spaces of his circulating shield. He then fires off a series of five Water Bullets from his bionic arm, followed by a series of five Lightning Bullets. He keeps his eyes trained on Damien, adjusting his aim and speed to keep up with what Takeshi knew could be a speedy opponent. "Are you proud of that pun I hope you are because I'm not!" Damien said laughing as the sheer cringe the pun emitted. The moment Takeshi foot hit the ground Damien was off! "SPARK" he yelled as he began running around the terrain, he body temperature raising rapidly. He observes as the metal plates begin to raise around Takeshi, "What in the world?" he thought to himself as he continued sprinting around. Every so often Damien would skip a step somewhat pausing planting his foot briefly in the ground before quickly continuin his spirnt. "Ahh yes you know whats really shocking? Your lack of subtlty!" Damien stops the Takeshi bullets come flying towards him. He slap his hands together his fiery aura surrounding them then he move them apart rapidly as he does so a flaming barrier is formed as the first set of bullets collide with it a small burst of steam is released Damien take the quickly fading cover of the steam to move to one side dodging the next set of bullets which when they made contact with his flame shield exploded creating a sort of shock wave which despite Damien being safely out of the way left his hair standing on end. "Ohh I get it know shocking because of the lightning," Damien said smiling as he looked over his shirt know drenched thanks to the moisture of the steam. Damien breathed in and he ran towards Takeshi "Okay lets see how you these apples!" he leapt into the air and let of an assortment of Fire balls racing towards Takeshi before contorting his face in concentration and letting of a beam of fire chasing after the flaming balls. Takeshi smiles at the predictability of his friend’s attacks, Damien seeming to follow the same pattern he had displayed in their last fight. Send off three more of the lightning bullets at various points in Damien’s circular path, Takeshi hopes to use the moisture present on Damien’s clothes to paralyze his target momentarily. He let out a laugh at Damien’s realization of his joke, seeing the fireballs now coming his way as he weaves a series of hand seals, sliding down his ReconOptic Scanner to lock onto the magical signatures of the fire blasts, and closing his metal shield in front of him just in case. “Formula 16!” He shouts, as he holds his hand up in the air to release a series of light beams that outnumber the fireballs present on his scanner. Aiming the beams at the fireballs he renders them void in an explosion of smoke, sending the remaining five light beams towards the running man at various levels to force a full body defensive spell from Damien to waste magic. His scanner picks up something else of Damien’s magical signature converging on him from outside his shield, and Takeshi deduces that it was a large beam of fire coming for him. Being fully prepared for this, Takeshi presses the button on the object he placed on the back of his metal plates at the beginning, switching the plate around to reveal said object towards the blast. Bet you haven’t seen these bad boys before… Takeshi thinks to himself as the metal casing retracts from the semi-sphere grenade, causing an unavoidable pull as the Crush Spell contained within the grenade activates and pulls in the flames caught in front of it within its form to eventually implode on itself. Part of Takeshi’s shield was taken in with the implosion but was easily replaced as it spins back into formation with his levitating shield. “You ever play Russian Roulette Damien? Guess you could say this is something like that; you don’t know what kind of surprise you’ll find on the other side of these plates.” He says with a smirk as he uses his ferrokinesis to spin around his metal plates like the barrel of a revolver. Figuring it was time to make his move, Takeshi locked his scanner on Damien’s form as he pulls out his Haku Scales katana. A white magic circle began to form beneath his feet as Takeshi bends his knees in preparation for the spell that can give him a far superior speed than Damien’s spark. “Think fast my friend, Fifteen Layered Magic Circle: Flying Echo Step!” He shouts as the white magic circle glows beneath him and sends him forward in a blinding speed that his floating shields can barely keep up with. With his sword drawn back and ready for a heavy slash across the chest of Damien, Takeshi coated his blade in an extremely heat resistant metal as another white magic circle appears beneath his feet to help change his direction to go to meet Damien head on. It takes one more of the thirteen remaining seals he had left in the spell to meet Damien close enough, Takeshi using his precise movements to make sure he wouldn’t hit any vital spots as he swings his blade forward to meet Damien during his pass. Takeshi feels comfort in the fact that his metal shields follow right behind him, protecting his back in what has become a battle of speed. "Well that sucked!" Damien thought to himself as his flames were eaten by Takeshi's implosion, his first thought was to run head on but then he noticed his hair was standing on ends he looked around just in time to see five beams of light converging on him. Damien dove dodging on beam but turned to face the beams arms outstretched as he let out an immense ball of fire to meet the light beams head on the resultant explosion propelled Damien some way away sending him spiralling towards the ground. He outstretched his hand performing a handstand propelling him back on to his feet as he continued running this focusing on the gaps between Takeshi's shield. "The gaps are the obvious root there should be another way..." he pondered to himself. He breathed out heavily, catching his breath at the same time Takeshi made his move, Damien observed as the white magic circle took hold and Takeshi began to move at blistering speed toward him Damien was taken aback, Takeshi hadn't shown anywhere near this amount of speed before. "He was holding back..." Damien said with a smirk. Damien grunted as Takeshi's blade made contact with his chest, Damien looked Takeshi in the eye, and stuck his tongue out, "Old Habits die hard!". Damien looked down the blade now embeded his chest weight sand leaking out of it. "I really like that old thing, you owe me one mate!" he said as he lashed out with a searing flaming kick, sending a flaming beacon into the air. "Really should have stayed behind your shield tin can!". Damien followed up the kick with a series of punches, with each strike a small explosion was felt, giving his strikes some extra power. Finally he opened his palm and unleashed an enormous torrent of flames strong enough that it attacked as a sort of jet propulsion, jetting Damien to a safer distance and at the same time engulfing Takeshi in flames. Damien kept up the flames as he prepared himself. He stopped sending the torrent of fire, tore of the his tattered chest weight and with a bang, he was off. Sprinting at dazzling speed he ran fist blazing with a punch poised for Takeshi chest. Tsk, as if a little fire could stop me. I still have a few more of my Echo Step seals left, better use them carefully. Takeshi thinks as another white circle appeared beneath his feet, giving him a boost to avoid the initial flame kick sent his way. Hm, super-heated extremities. Seems like he wants to melt his way through my defense...Well fine by me, let's see what he's got. He thinks as he notes Damien coming in once again for a series of searing flame punches, Takeshi moving the empty metal plate he had restored moments ago in front of him to block the spitfire man. The punches immediately dent the metal from the explosive power, its gray color turning shades of red and orange as it begins to shift into a molten form; the metallic particles now dripping down the unaffected parts of the shield until it morphs into a molten sludge of metal floating in the air. The sudden torrent of flames take him by surprise, his skin feeling the searing heat from the flames as he uses another two Echo Steps to zig zag out of the way of the blast and into a clearing with some more distance between Damien and him than originally. "Careful man, wouldn't want to burn down the guild on accident! But fine, I won't hide behind my tin can anymore." Takeshi laughs out as Damien rushes him. A smile stays on his face as the poised punch comes toward him, Takeshi choosing to face Damien head on, but using the time that Damien needs to cover the space between them to fan out the five metal plates in front of him in a horizontal line. He keeps his form visible to Damien, as to not deter his flamed friend from his approach, with the molten remains of his last shield sitting in a flat disc on the floor in the center of the five shields. With the flat disc not obstructing the view of Takeshi from Damien, Takeshi times his maneuver to give only fractions of a millisecond for Damien to react when Takeshi raises the molten metal with a flick of his finger, to have it act as a sludge to absorb the punch. His other four plates then flip and bend to hopefully seal off Damien in a hut-like creation of metal, as Takeshi would then sets off the remaining four implosion grenades that were placed on the plates at the start. This would cause an explosion of metallic shards as the grenades would aim to suck Damien towards each of their impending skewers. The force of the pull from the grenades would surely absorb any flames Damien hopes to use in defense, and even if he did overwhelm the grenades, the molten metallic shards from the plates explosion would surely slice his skin. Now I have ten speed boosts seals left, and I know just how to use them... Takeshi thought as he sacrificed his initial defense in this maneuver he had planned from the start, but prepares to activate his ferrous eques to protect himself as he puts his katana at the ready for Damien's counter. Damien was getting frustrated Takeshi's attack were relentless, forcing him to go the defensive almost immediately, he needed to make this work. These were the thoughts running through Damien head as he rushed toward Takeshi, Takeshi had brushed off his attacks, Damien had severely underestimated his echo-step, luckily, he was beginning to understand what his next move would be if he did see the other side of this next maneuver. Damien felt the heat of the molten metal before he really understood what was going on he instincts he let of a short burst of flame from his feet in an attempt to give himself some extra altitude he simply couldn't react fast enough. Damien felt the metal hit him searing and heat scalding his skin, he quickly focused on dispersing the heat from the iron the metal solidified dragging him down slowing his movements somewhat. "This pain is something else!" "BANG!" Takeshi's grenades went off Damien still recovering from the molten attack, felt the sharp tug of the implosion, he felt he could handle this but then another thought hit him. "Wait weren't those grenades on..." Damien looked around him to see metallic shards no doubts attracted by the implosion hurtling toward him. "Okay..." Damien said as the blades hurtled towards him, "I got this!" Damien span on the spot his arms extended "Supa hot fire!" with a bit of luck his flame would be enough to overwhelm the grenades. Damien then curled up in a ball and prayed letting the blades crashed straight into him, he tensed as the metallic shards bounced off the metal which had bonded to Damien's skin with a several loud dings. "Just call me Iron Man!" Damien said with a smirk. He stood up and and flexed letting loose a pulse of raw heat, causing any remaining shrapnel to melt away and at the same time melting off the iron that was on his skin. He concentrated further causing the ground beneath him to melt into magma the very heat causing the metal disc to warp under the heat. "Okay you gotta admit Takeshi, that was pretty hot!" Damien said with a smirk. He began walking towards to Takeshi and his now warped metal discs giving him clear line of sight to Takeshi. As he walks he reaches down removing his leg weights, Damien then proceeded to unleash his aura, the entire area began to rise in temperature. He eyed Takeshi with his sword now out, he looked around the terrain that he had already ran circles countlessly and smiled to himself. He rub his skin which was red and blistered from the contact with the molten metal. "Takeshi lets do this!" he said as he raised his arm in a fighting stance, his fiery aura still causing the temperature to rise exponentially. "You know what they say Takeshi strike whilst the iron's hot!" Takeshi sees the blistered and raw skin on Damien's arms from the second degree burns and smiles in the success of his plan, "That was pretty hot my friend." Takeshi laughs at their subtle battle of puns beginning to take place, he subtly rubs the skin that was seared on the last attack, knowing full well the power of Damien's flames. Pressing down on a button on his bionic arm to start a timer, sweat began to form on Takeshi's brow from the rising heat emitted by the aura bursting out of Damien's form. Geez man, it's like a sauna out here! I guess that's the only benefit I see from wasting your magic through an aura release... I better activate my ferrous eques just to protect myself from shriveling up like a raisin in this heat. Takeshi thinks as a metallic form takes over his body. He notes Damien's stance, as it seems to invite him in for a close combat battle, but Takeshi was not one to give into the will of the opponent and chose to stay in his spot to clue Damien in on what actually transpired in his last attack. "Listen mate, I zinc you should think back onto what you just metal-ed in..." Takeshi says with a smirk, pointing to his arms in an effort for Damien to mimic. "That molten metal you ran into wasn't just made up of iron, it was reinforced with Iridosmium particles. A metal that is known to be highly toxic and cause localized tissue death within 3 to 4 hours. Thanks to your help, the metal was able to heat up and expose the blood vessels in your skin through the burns to allow the metal to seep into your bloodstream." Takeshi says, revealing the time limit of Damien's fatal mistake. "Don't worry though, there is an antidote for it; something that I actually carry with me in my INDO Cuffs here. The quicker you take it the faster it works, that way you won't lose so much tissue. But the more you move around, the more blood rushes through your body, spreading around the metal that has made its way into your bloodstream." Takeshi then move his sword to face Damien, prepared to activate the blade's spell should Damien refuse his next words. He takes a look at the timer he started on his arm and sees its at around 3 minutes. "So you have a choice here buddy: Give up on the fight and I will give you antidote now to prevent any damage to your tissues. Or fight until this timer here on my arm reaches 2 hours, and I will give you the antidote before the typically 3 hour incubation period, but... face the risk of destroying some of your tissues by speeding up the incubation period with heavy cardiac activity from continuing to fight me." "Well then..." Damien began as he raised his hand, "I guess I gotta end this quickly don't I?", a perfect circle began to glow around the terrain, Damien clenched his fist and in a violent eruption, the terrain exploded propelling those within it skyward Damien was all to too prepared for this a propelled himself down willing the fire to make space for him alone to stand in its heart. Pillars of fire, and magma shot into the air. From the very begining Damein had placed little pockets of his fire magic in the ground, orginally as way of refilling his magic energy but this worked as well, there were several pockets around the circumferance of the terrain and they had all just exploded under Damien will. "Now this is hot enough to melt you're ,but you know as well I do how hot I tend to be ay Takeshi?" he said cheekily as he closed his eyes, his orange fiery aura becoming that unmisstakeable dark purple aura. "You recognize this one right Takeshi, I was gonna avoid this I really can't hold to the strength but you hey pick your posion right?" The dark aura began to invade the flamming pillars the ground which had now become unmistakenbly magma under Damiens intense heat now glowed a dark purple rather than its usual hue. Damien looked up as he raised his arm the now purple flames shot towards Takeshi's airborne body. They first flew as individual but converged as one, the dark aura spreading an air of hopelessness which was even affecting Damien or perhaps it was the toxins in his blood all he knew was that this was all he had left. "This is my ultimatum Takeshi, take my attack head on, fall to the ground, try and hit me head on or better yet just throw in the towel." Damien felt himself wavering, this was it, "C'mon tin can lets make some sparks!" he yelled out load as he watched his violet flamming torrent of fire race toward Takeshi somewhat mesmerized but its majesty, or perhaps he was hallucinating it was hard for him to tell at this point. "Ah I see your decisions are not easily lead...but I--" Takeshi beings, being taken by surprise by the sudden explosion beneath their feet that sent the earth flying up like a platform shooting up into the sky. Losing his balance a look of shock crosses his face as he watches Damien jet back down towards the earth below them. Rubble from the exploding earth could be seen scratching the surface of his metallic body, as Takeshi puts away his sword and thinks to himself, Clever, he must have created some sort of flame tunnel system below the earth while he was running circles around the spot we were in...creating a pressurized system to send us up like the cork flying out of a champagne bottle. Takeshi marvels at his guildmate's ingenuity, though he was thankful that Damien seemed to have forgotten something, as Takeshi casts a spell to help regain his balance and allows him to float in place about thirty feet up off the ground. His Repel spell, had been used in the last fight, so Takeshi wondered how Damien must have forgotten that Takeshi possess the ability to seemingly fly by using his Magnet Magic to repel his body against the earth's own magnetic field. Good thing too, seems like Damien was going to try and force me to take a dip in that lava...ouch... he thinks as he hears Damien call out to prep Takeshi for his final attack, something Takeshi was thankful for as it gave him time to begin to weave the hand seals for his defense. Formula 33. Takeshi thinks to himself as he holds out his hands in front of him, a massive explosion of smoke coming out to cover the formation of the actual spell, as well as giving Takeshi time to create more distance between him and his defense in case it were to shatter. Once the smoke clears out, several large, flat, circular pool of water appear stacked on top of each other facing the torrent of fire. These viscous pools of water can easily absorbs the flames, as its surface acts like a mirror, perfectly reflecting the attacks back on his target due to its elastic nature. Takeshi tilts these water mirrors, however, so that the rebounded attack would pass over Damien's head and not injure him even more. Unsure of if his mirror's would hold, Takeshi readied two of his remaining Echo Step seals beneath his feet to help him jet out of the way of the torrent if it broke through. Damien stared up at Takeshi and smiled, "Of course you would use that!" Damien allowed his flames to fly straight into the Water Mirriors, "Now for the hard part!" He said he knew very well his flame could overwhelm the circles with ease but he needed to make use of their properties. He rembered his last battle with Takeshi in his team, these magic circles could be used to empower his own attacks, whilst now they were aim against him he could now use them to his advatnage."He wasn't kidding about those toxins I really can't hold on much longer!". Damien could feel himself slipping, he knew under normal circumstances that the Forbidden Flame Arts would be hard enough to control right now it felt like it was eating away at him, his whole body was on fire and yet he felt cold. He willed his flames to engulf the magic circles, his flames began to expand feeding of the ethernano in the circles, as this went on Damien raised his free hand over his immediate area the Magma on the ground hovered for a second as his willed it upwards and it shot into the sky towards Takeshi. His flames unhindred, rather empowered by the magic circles had grown to a titanic size, their intensity grew to match their new found power. As the flames reached the last of the magic circles Damien clenched his fist and "Boom" the flames exploded with a shockwave that parted even the clouds,the trees in the forest quaked. The flames did not disipitate but rather rode on the explosion expaning rapidly in the air placing a violet hue over the entire area. Damien collasped to his knees his now raised his face contorted in pain as he focused everything his had mainting the flames, his flames sapping away at the ethernano in the air and in his own system. "I don't know how he plans to escpae this but magic sure as hell aint gonna be the awnser" Damien, assumed that if the Forbidden Flame arts were to burn off any ethernano any active spell or charms or technology for that matter would begin to fail and with that explosion he would have mere seconds to react he smiled. "I guess this'll Iron out any potential for Takeshi to walk outta this one unscathed!" Damien thought to himself as he breathed heavily trying to catch his breath. Takeshi watched as the flame blast began to make its way through his defenses; having already prepared for such an occasion he activated the two magic seals beneath his feet to further his distance from his mirrors with enhanced speed before he watched them explode with ferocity of both fire and magma. Takeshi had learned from his last fight that the flames themselves extinguished magic, and so he knew that he just had to outlast the blast in order to be safe from harm. Pushing off the magnetism of the earth, giving him as much height as he could to escape the blast. Guess I will have to be like an onion and get some layers... Takeshi thought as he pulled out a few implosion grenades and threw them below in the direction towards the blast, using them to absorb the energy and give him time to cast his next spell. As he began to morph ethernano into his hands, his implosion grenades seemed to run out as he feels a cringing feeling against his legs and calves, glancing down to see the metal coating his legs begin to turn red and burn away. Takeshi releases chunks of the metal to fall to the earth, taking the flames with them, though burn marks still plague his legs. Doing his best to block out the mind numbing pain of his legs he throws his hands downwards in an attempt to snuff out the flames and give them more magic then they could handle. "Quicksilver Wave!" He shouts, as a silvery-white, poisonous metallic element comes rushing out. Because mercury is the only metal that is liquid at standard conditions for temperature and pressure, it functions perfectly as the 660,000 gallon wave that comes forth from the magic circle; giving Takeshi a great deal of buffer to quell the blast and overwhelm its power to extinguish his magic. He then threw as many of his volatile, implosion and frag grenades towards the center of where the blast came from to direct the kinetic energy of the blast back down to the earth and stop the explosion from continuing. "There we go..." Takeshi said through gritted teeth, the pain in his feet evident by the blisters and peeling skin. "That should be enough to quench it. I do lava good fight, but I hope Damien put out the fire on the ground so it doesn't get near the guild building..." Takeshi says as he stays up in his position in the sky, adjusting his scanner to look for Damien through the sense smoke of his disposed grenades. He checks his timer on his arm and sees that the timer is getting close to the limit, and that he should give Damien the antidote soon to save him from any permanent damage from his metal. "Damn,you really know how to survive don't you!" Damien said lightly his words now not coming easily as he knelled on the floor his arms falling to his side. "You wanna...get that antidote over here I know iron is part of a good diet but this is abit much don't you think?" he said chuckling at first before it became a hacking cough causing him to collaspe on the ground his back staring up at the sky. His vision blurry all he could make out were the last specks of his flames burning out perhaps out of shame their caster had fallen. Damien closed his eyes a feeling a dread welling up in him, he knew this was as far as he would go. Takeshi began to lower himself to the ground, tears forming in his eyes as his charred feet touched the ground before he plopped on his butt. Takeshi smiles and laughs at Damien's joke, thankful that the two were able to maintain their friendly banter throughout the rigorous fight. Pressing down on his INDO cuff, a syringe of liquid comes forth. Telling Damien to brace himself for a slight pinch, Takeshi pushes the syringe needle into the muscle of the arm and injects the content. "You should start to feel better within a matter of minutes, the antidote is pretty fast acting, and I gave you a dose and a half just to be careful considering how much we exerted ourselves. I do have to say that fight was a real blast." Takeshi laughs out, falling on his back to lay next to his new friend. He could see the expression on the younger mage's face, and gives him a gentle nudge with his elbow. "Hey bro, don't worry about it. I have almost a decade on you, so I've had a bit more practice with fighting. I can tell just from being around you during these trials that you have what it takes to be S Class for sure. You're pretty hot stuff!" He says with a toothy grin in his efforts to cheer up his friend. Damien laughed "I know I'm hot don't need you to tell me! Though to be honest you're iron defense was something else!" Damien stood up slowly already feeling the antidote working and looked down on Takeshi. "Don't let me down in the next round!" he said pointing at Takeshi before look at their battle ground..." You don't think I'll get in trouble for blowing up the field do you?" he said before stumbling back towards the guild hall. "I need some burn cream and my bed I'll see you around Takeshi!"